Chinese ages and birthdays can be a little hard to explain to non-Chinese people. First, we use the Chinese calendar, which typically has 353, 354 or 355 days instead of the western calendar of 365 days. Instead of a leap day added to the calendar every 4 years, we add a leap month about every 3 years.

If this isn't confusing enough, the Chinese start counting age from the time you are conceived, not born, so every Chinese is one year old at birth and then adds to their age each Chinese New Year instead of their actual birthday. To learn your age based on the Chinese calendar, click here for a nifty tool to do so.